By the time Southern resident killer whales return to the Salish Sea on Canada’s West Coast this spring, the federal government is hoping they have a quieter place to spend their time, with more Chinook salmon to feed on and fewer contaminants in the water.

That’s the goal of “a suite of additional bold measures” announced Wednesday by Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Transport Minister Marc Garneau, as well as a commitment of $61.5 million to implement them.

“British Columbia’s iconic Southern resident killer whales (SRKWs) capture our imagination,” Wilkinson said. “Orcas are powerful predators known for their intelligence and their inquisitiveness. Most of us admire their highly developed acoustic skills, which they use to hunt, to navigate, and to communicate with each other.”

But they’re facing significant threats, he said, mainly from a lack of available prey (primarily Chinook salmon), noise and disturbance from boats, and contaminants in the water.

Building on measures already in place — including reductions in Chinook fishing and fishery closures in key areas of critical habitat, as well as voluntary vessel slowdowns and implementing a buffer zone for boats — Wilkinson announced plans to protect new areas of critical habitat, including the creation of whale sanctuaries in key areas where the whales forage.

The government also plans to expand vessel slowdowns to reduce underwater noise, and develop agreements with ferry operators and others in the marine industry to formalize current voluntary measures to reduce noise.

Wilkinson said the government is also expanding vessel-monitoring systems to develop real-time ability to prevent whale encounters as part of a Whale Report Alert System. It’s also launching consultations with the marine industry to develop noise management plans and put them in place.

New measures are also meant to: protect and recover Chinook salmon stocks; reduce discharge from wastewater facilities; and increase regulatory control of five key organic pollutants that affect whales, including two flame retardants.

At the Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA), which has been advocating for immediate actions to protect the orca population since the early 2000s, executive director Christianne Wilhelmson said while more information is needed, particularly to determine what can be done by the time the whales return, the announcement is promising.

“The good news is that the government wants to make tangible changes before May. We’ve never heard them say that before,” she said. “That seems to be a recognition that they’re on a timeline.”

Wilhelmson said the government can act quickly to help a species when it wants to. She cited measures taken to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales on the East Coast this past summer, including mandatory slowdowns and dynamic fisheries closures, after a dozen whales died in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the summer of 2017.

On the West Coast, the SRKW population has declined from approximately 83 individuals in 2003 to 74. There have been no births resulting in a surviving calf in nearly three years, and 69 per cent of pregnancies fail. Among the pod, there are only about 23 reproductive females between the ages of 11 and 40, and most of the pregnancies are the result of mating with only one male in the population. In recent years, the pod has shown signs of being nutritionally stressed.

“That’s science-speak for starving,” Wilhelmson told the House fisheries committee on Tuesday, as part of its study on the situation of Canada’s endangered whales.

“We have a species in crisis, and immediate and bold action needs to be taken to save it. The science is clear, and the path to save these whales is laid out even more clearly. The loss of an apex predator is a house of cards we do not want to experience.”

In 2003, the SRKW was listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA). In January, several conservation groups, including the GSA, provided the government with a list of urgent actions to implement. In May of this year, the government concluded the whales were under imminent threat.

It also found that, since 2003, the threats were likely increasing, not lessening, and intervention was necessary to their survival and recovery, Wilhelmson told the committee, noting the population has continued to decline since being listed under SARA.

In September, the Alliance was among the groups that launched a lawsuit to force the federal government to take more dramatic action to protect the orcas.

“The emergency order we’ve been asking the government for is a tool that would help them do this faster,” Wilhelmson said. “Their reluctance to use it is a concern.”

An order under SARA involves a minister making a recommendation to cabinet to issue one — which, in turn, allows the minister to circumvent bureaucratic slowdowns.

An example is the consultations currently underway on critical habitat, where these whales are known to socialize, feed, and raise their young. New areas may be designated by the end of the year, Wilhelmson said, despite recommendations to that end being made two years ago.

“We have all the evidence we need; we don’t need to keep talking about it,” she said, noting more fisheries could have been closed two years ago, as well.

“This emergency order could actually make the government’s jobs easier.”

The order has been used twice before. In 2016, it was used to protect two square kilometres of Western chorus frog habitat in Quebec, and in 2013 to protect the endangered greater sage-grouse in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Asked about the reluctance to resort to an emergency order, Wilkinson told iPolitics: “We are aware of our obligations under the Species at Risk Act. We will be able to speak to the issue of the emergency order soon,” he said in a statement.

“For today, we would note that the government has a wide range of tools and measures ‎available to it to address the situation of the Southern resident killer whale,” the statement continues. “And we are pleased to say that we are undertaking many measures to help the whales, including the new ones we have announced today.”

Wilhelmson is encouraged by the measures announced, but said the clock is ticking.

‘They seemed to show today the desire to do a little more. At the end of the day, orcas don’t care about politics. Time is passing.”